LIST OF LINE DRAWINGS

Sowing seed and working it into the soil

Imitative sound was the first language of mankind

The blind bard Homer singing his legends and traditions Friends or foe? All depends upon the manner in which strange chiefs greet each other

Among many savage people the girl is confined to a little

hut until married

The affectionate caress traces its origin back to the earliest times

The origin of the bridal shower

PAGE

. 68

122

. 140

151

167

. 186

. 195

Drawing of the inscription on the statue of Goddess Sekhmet. 289
Scribes-Wall-reliefs in the tombs of Kagemni and Mastaba
A monk of the 10th century copying the text of the Bible.
The visiting card of primitive man—a carved rock
Guests at feasts with attendants

. 292

. 294

. 317

The names of Pharaoh's guests were engraved upon "guest wall".

Manufacture of pottery-From wall-painting in tomb

Khnumhotep

Dragging the Yule-log to the castle-hearth

Our grandfathers danced a graceful waltz
In the shadow of the guillotine Paris danced in frenzied madness 480
The polka was popular during the latter half of the 19th

One of the most familiar characters born of superstition is the witch

. 630

The black cat is the traditional companion of witches
Origin of the expression "tickled to death"

. 643

. 682

The high bicycle which was popular about 1880
The cup and ball-Time of Henry III of France

. 695

.697

THE CUSTOMS OF MANKIND

(Courtesy of Neto York Museum of Natural History)

THE CUSTOMS OF MANKIND

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY

In every department of human thought there is present evidence of the persistence of primitive ideas. Scratch the epiderm of the civilized man, and the barbarian is found in the derm. Man is the same everywhere at the bottom; if there are many varieties, there is but one species. His civilization is the rare topmost shoot of the tree whose roots are in the earth, and whose trunk and larger branches are in savagery. -EDWARD CLODD.

THE CHILDHOOD OF MAN

HE writer on primitive man and on ancient civilizations does not always know precisely where to start. He walks, for a while, hand in hand with fancy, following wherever it may lead. All history seems to him as but yesterday. And prehistory seems a swaying mass of shadowy forms from which he takes or leaves, according to his purpose.

But he who would build history, not with the ordinary facts of evolution, but with the manners and customs of man himself, has no choice. He is obliged to go back to the very cradle of human existence, to project himself into the daily life of many thousands of years ago, studying man in his infancy, walking beside him through barbarism, through the early gropings for reason, through the dawn and development of religion, through civilization. And he must take the vast store of raw material which he gathers, interpreting it in terms of simple human nature.

No historian or antiquarian can tell you the exact day